Coast Guard, CBP facilitate 96-hour advance report notice

Coast Guard, CBP facilitate 96-hour advance report notice    Vessels headed to U.S. ports can now file a single report to the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection to meet their 96-hour advance notice of arrival requirement.
   The new electronic Notice of Arrival/Departure System (eNOAD) provides the maritime industry one window to submit required crew passenger, vessel, voyage and cargo information for safety and security purposes. Before the new system went into effect Jan. 31, vessels had to separately submit the information to the two agencies.
   The move is another step in the often slow process of coordinating homeland security efforts into an integrated whole as envisioned by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
   CBP gets the information primarily for immigration purposes. The system does not accept the 24-hour advance manifest information CBP requires. The two agencies said they are working on ways to share that kind of detailed cargo information.
   Use of the Web-based eNOAD system is voluntarily. Vessels can also notify the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Movement Center via e-mail, fax or phone, but those delivery formats will be phased out and the electronic system made mandatory, according to the two agencies.
      The Coast Guard launched the electronic Notice of Arrival system last summer to replace the less accurate process of e-mailing arrival notice. Information in the body of the e-mail or an attachment can be erased by special software programs that detect the presence of a virus or worm. The system transmits the data to the National Vessel Movement Center in an XML format that allows for quick, automated processing.
   Other enhancements to the Web-based system include allowing the user to update previously submitted information and receive an e-mail receipt that the report was received. System edits also prompt the user if certain fields in the form are incomplete.
   “We are committed to simplifying and easing requirements for our industry partners while we strengthen maritime security. With a single electronic submission, we improve not only the quality but also the accuracy of the information we receive and simultaneously speed the flow of trade and secure our nation,” CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner said in a statement.
   The Coast Guard also put stricter penalties in place last August to combat “a significant non-compliance rate” with the 96-hour notice of arrival requirement, said Rear Adm. Larry Hereth, the Coast Guard’s director of port security, at a conference sponsored by Marine Log magazine this week in Washington.
   More information on the new system can be found on the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Movement Center Web site at https://www.nvmc.uscg.gov .